Publishing industry consultant Mike Shatzkin has a blog post titled: The printed book’s path to oblivion
Excerpt: It is very hard for me to grasp why anybody would prefer a printed book 30 or 40 years from now. I’m sure by then screen technology will be able to simulate any aspect of the printed book that could possibly be of interest (except, perhaps, for the smell of the paper, ink, and glue, but, then maybe a companion air-wick would do the trick. I wonder if you can use the same aromas for all titles, or whether some customization will be required.)
LibraryThing
There is a discussion of libraries and ebooks in the comments to the Shatzkin blog entry. Tim Spaulding, founder of LibraryThing, joined in the conversation. It is worth taking a look.
Very few
I’m so tired of hearing about the aroma of a book. Most books do not smell good. I don’t have any stats to back me up but I would bet money that most people could care less about the smell of a book.
print is “permanent”
for anything we want to keep for a long time, we will collect in print. people still hang posters and print photos. sure, you won’t have a book shelf full of books, but people will still want books. wait, I mean people who aren’t stupid.
Print is not permanent
Print is not permanent with librarians around. My local public library weeded the only copies of some books about local city history. Thanks librarians.
Early literacy starts w/ a keyboard?
Uh no–it starts w/ a board book often, then moves on to picture book. To start a kid reading you need to start before age 1. Critical sequencing –left to right in most western countries, turning a page to go on–knowing even that there is more to see–are all early literacy skills learned w/ board and picture books, not eformats.
I’m not seeing too many individuals hand their Kindles over to teething 6-month olds.
Read to 6 month old
You can read a story to a 6 month old without giving them a book. In fact a 6 months it is a great time to read to them because they are just soothed by the words. You can read them “The History of the Roman Empire” and they listen just like you are reading “Fluffy Bunny”